Prerequisites: Students who sign up for this advanced course should either have five years or more of personal LC/MS/MS experience and familiarity with the scientific literature or have taken one or more introductory courses which cover atmospheric pressure ionization (API) techniques as well as the basics involved in routine LC/MS and LC/MS/MS analyses.

Overview: This course presents presents a comprehensive overview of technology and techniques of analytical mass spectrometry and from that foundation extends into exciting, disruptive recent developments.

To Discuss: New ionization techniques which may be used without on-line separation science technology. This area has evolved into a variety of ambient ionization techniques such as DESI, DART, ASAP, etc.

To Discuss: Developments and improvements in mass analyzers including linear ion traps, FTMS, time-of-flight (TOF), orbitraps, and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), the latter currently being applied to micro-dosing experiments by the pharmaceutical industry. Issues such as full-scan acquisition rates, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), the importance and usefulness of exact mass measurements for qualitative and quantitative analysis, and the analytical merits compared with modern SRM LC/MS experiments will be discussed with many practical examples and applications. The latter will include clinical chemistry issues as well as pharmaceutical, food safety, environmental and industrial examples.

Imaging and profiling by MS

Applications of recently reported ionization techniques for imaging the location of chemicals in various matrices employing MALDI, DESI, LAESI, LESA and other techniques.

Topics: The technique of MALDI and its applications to tissue imaging as well as DESI, LAESI and also liquid extraction surface analysis (LESA) employing nano-electrospray. A comparison of the various classes of compounds where MALDI and nano ESI provide complimentary coverage of certain compounds found in biological and other matrices.

To Discuss: The analytical merits of HRAMS from QTOF as well as orbitraps and FTMS systems will be presented. Instances where either SRM LC/MS or LC HRAMS may be preferred for optimal selectivity due to chemical background or other interference issues.

To Discuss: The benefits and limitations of smaller analytical instrumentation systems will be compared. This includes miniaturization of HPLC systems as well as the mass spectrometers themselves. The commercial introduction of chip-based HPLC systems closely integrated with mass spectrometers offers a glimpse of future directions in analytical chemistry.

Synergistic Integration

A systematic overview via specific examples with applications highlighting noted examples of innovative novel and non-standard technologies which demonstrate the analytical potential of new analytical technologies.

Developing instrumentation and technologies will be important aspects of future mass spectrometry techniques and its expansion to important new applications. An extremely important example is the need for LC/MS bioanalysis (quantitation) of biologics (ADC‟s, large molecules, RNA, etc.) in biological samples employing both bottom up and top down methods. HRAMS coupled with „protein friendly‟ chromatography will significantly expand our present analytical capabilities. Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) and transportable mass spectrometers could lead to point-of-care applications and other far reaching applications of mass spectrometry beyond what we are doing today. The future is very exciting!

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$110

$132

$165

Academic / Non-Profit

$330

$396

$495

Commercial / Industry

$550

$660

$825

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Jack Henion, PhD

Jack Henion is Professor Emeritus of Toxicology at Cornell University in the Analytical Toxicology Section of the Diagnostic Laboratory within the College of Veterinary Medicine. He is also a co-founder, Chairman and CSO of Advion BioSciences (ABS), Inc., located in Ithaca, New York. Dr. Henion's work in LC/MS relates to the analysis of real-world samples common to pharmaceutical, environmental, and biochemical problems. The instructor has published extensively in the areas of conventional capillary GC/MS as well as LC/MS, SFC/MS, IC/MS, and CE/MS using atmospheric pressure ionization (API) technologies with quadrupole, ion trap, and time-of-flight mass spectrometers.

Overview: Have you ever tried to do Deming regression in Excel only to discover that it is not available?
Have you had your figure rejected by a journal because the resolution was not good enough?
Have you wished that you could figure out a way to stop manually transcribing your LC-MS/MS results into the LIS?

Well, your wait is over because this year at MSACL we will be offering a course for complete programming newbies that will help you get going analyzing real data related to LC-MS/MS assay development, validation, implementation and publication. The only background expected is the ability to use a spreadsheet program. The skills that you will acquire will allow you to take advantage of the many tools already available in the R language and thereafter, when you see that your spreadsheet program does not have the capabilities to do what you need, you will no longer have to burst into tears. You will be empowe-R-ed.

The course will be run over two days and time will be evenly split between didactic sessions and hands on problem solving with real data sets. Drs Holmes and Master will adopt a “no student left behind policy”. Students will be given ample time to solve mini problems taken from real life laboratory work and focused on common laboratory tasks. All attendees will need to bring a laptop with the R language installed R Studio interface installed. Students may use Windows, Mac OSX or Linux environments. Both R and R studio are free and open-source. No cash required.

Students should be prepared for learning what computer programming is really like. This may involve some personal frustration but it will be worth it.

Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia

Daniel Holmes did his undergraduate degree in Chemical Physics from the University of Toronto with a focus on Quantum Mechanics. He went to medical school at the University of British Columbia (UBC) where he also did his residency in Medical Biochemistry. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC and Division Head of Clinical Chemistry at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. Interests include laboratory medicine statistics, clinical endocrinology, clinical lipidology and clinical mass spectrometry. Assay development efforts in the last two years have focused on assays specialized endocrine testing.

Stephen Master received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, and subsequently obtained his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. After residency in Clinical Pathology at Penn, he stayed on as a faculty member with a research focus in mass spectrometry-based proteomics as well as extensive course development experience in bioinformatics. He is currently Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, where he serves as Director of the Central Lab and Chief of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Services. One of his current interests is in the applications of bioinformatics and machine learning for the development of clinical laboratory assays. He would play with R for fun even if he weren't getting paid, but he would appreciate it if you didn't tell that to his department chair.

Overview: Scientific publication is an important and necessary activity for researchers. Being a good researcher, however, does not automatically make you a good writer. Good science is the foundation of a scientific paper, but how the science is presented also strongly influences whether a paper gets accepted for publication. This session focuses on key elements of writing a scientific paper, starting with the first word put onto a page to the final printed product:

Choosing the most effective words

Writing clear sentences

Developing the proper title

Creating an informative abstract

Organizing the Introduction

Emphasizing results versus data

How to start and end the Discussion

Creating clear tables and figures

How to correctly use citations and references

How to choose the right journal

How to respond to reviewer comments

Acceptance does not mean the finish line

Expected Outcomes:

After this session, participants will be able to:

bring greater clarity and consistency to a scientific paper;

describe the features that distinguish papers accepted for publication;

organize the major sections of a scientific paper; and

create more effective tables and figures.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$90

$108

$135

Academic / Non-Profit

$270

$324

$405

Commercial / Industry

$450

$540

$675

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Thomas Annesley, PhD

Thomas M. Annesley, Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Michigan. He is the Deputy Editor of the journal Clinical Chemistry, and has more than 20 years of experience in journal editing and teaching about biomedical writing.

Prerequisites: Working knowledge of presentation software. While this course uses PowerPoint, the methods taught can be used with almost any presentation software.

Overview:

Day 1: Walk through interactive training in the full methodology for storyboarding, visual design, and oral delivery.

Day 2: See Presentations 102, below.

You have brilliant ideas with great potential. But it doesn't matter what you know; it matters what you communicate! Knowing how to create and deliver clear and compelling presentation documents can unlock influence and opportunity in your career. And the good news is that because there are so many bad presentations out there, armed with the skills in this course, it will be easy for you to stand out in a good way.

This class teaches you how to develop compelling presentations using storyboarding - a method used by professionals in major management consulting firms and some of the largest companies in the world. This versatile method will work for you whether you are in academics, business, government, or a non-profit and whether your audience is executives, colleagues, students, or investors.

While the course has a LOT of very practical information and tips, it is not a collection of sound bites and "top 10 tricks." It is a complete, proven process for creating memorable, persuasive presentations and shows you step by step exactly how to:

Structure your content to flow smoothly and logically from start to finish in a way that is highly influential

Design professional quality slides that make your key points jump off the page. Visual polish goes a long way in establishing credibility. And yes, YOU can do this, even if you are not a graphic designer!

Orally deliver your presentation in a way that fully engages your audience with your ideas.

Many presentation courses are designed for the person giving a keynote address in front of a large auditorium. But most presentations are created for everyday settings: executive or team meetings, classrooms, and client discussions. And these presentations have very different challenges, which are the focus of this course. They must organize and communicate much larger amounts of information, but in a way that is still engaging and easy to follow. In addition, while they may serve as visual aids for an oral presentation, they must also stand on their own two feet and be clearly understood whether or not you are there to narrate them.

Comments from last year's course participants:

"Very useful and practical. It can be applied right away."

"It was very well laid out and easy to understand. The audience interaction was great and very engaging."

"The materials we get to take home are so well organized and so clear that I was able to use the method on my own, 4 months after the short course."

"I felt very prepared when I had to make a presentation on a new topic. I spent far less time creating graphics I didn’t use and re-arranging slides with Karen’s method. Ultimately that led to less stress during the process of preparing the slides, and it improved the clarity and strengthened the message of my presentation."

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$90

$108

$135

Academic / Non-Profit

$270

$324

$405

Commercial / Industry

$450

$540

$675

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Karen Mahooti, MBA

Karen holds an MBA from the Yale University School of Management and is founder and principal at Articulate Consulting. Karen has provided training in presentation development skills to professionals around the world from executives and managers to analysts, consultants, and graduate students. In addition, over her career as both a management consultant and a marketing professional for a Fortune 20 company, Karen has created a multitude of clear and compelling presentations to help senior executives and board members of large companies make better strategic decisions. She understands first-hand the challenges of creating presentations when the stakes are high and clients' expectations are even higher. Karen's style is both visionary and practical. She seeks to inspire others to have confidence in what they can accomplish with their presentations, and also to give them the concrete know-how and tools they need to immediately begin creating presentations that give them the influence they desire.

Prerequisites:Presentations 101 - REQUIRED. Working knowledge of presentation software. While this course uses PowerPoint, the methods taught can be used with almost any presentation software.

Overview: The best way to learn is by doing! This is a hands-on workshop opportunity to apply the methodology in development of an actual presentation document with the benefit of coaching from the instructor in combination with tools and techniques learned from Presentations 101. Each participant should bring a topic for a presentation they would like to develop for future use, as well as a general idea of its basic content. You are welcome to bring a laptop if your content is on the computer or needs to be accessed online, but a computer is not required. You will leave the class with a fully developed storyboard and sketched plan for slide visuals.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$25

$30

$38

Academic / Non-Profit

$75

$90

$113

Commercial / Industry

$125

$150

$188

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Karen Mahooti, MBA

Karen holds an MBA from the Yale University School of Management and is founder and principal at Articulate Consulting. Karen has provided training in presentation development skills to professionals around the world from executives and managers to analysts, consultants, and graduate students. In addition, over her career as both a management consultant and a marketing professional for a Fortune 20 company, Karen has created a multitude of clear and compelling presentations to help senior executives and board members of large companies make better strategic decisions. She understands first-hand the challenges of creating presentations when the stakes are high and clients' expectations are even higher. Karen's style is both visionary and practical. She seeks to inspire others to have confidence in what they can accomplish with their presentations, and also to give them the concrete know-how and tools they need to immediately begin creating presentations that give them the influence they desire.

Results Management 101 :: Effective Results Management

Instructor(s):

Rainer Vollmerhaus, PhD

Level:

0 (General Interest)

Location:

Chino

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Not in Session

Not in Session

Monday12:30 - 1:30 pm

Monday1:30 - 5:30 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites: This short course requires you to complete an online survey prior to attending. Details will be emailed to you two weeks prior to course start date.

Overview: In this short course, individuals will learn how to get the results they need, while balancing the overwhelming number of initiatives and work experienced every day. By taking a focused look at how to effectively drive individual initiatives to a successful outcome the overall rate of delivery of results will increase, the overall success rate will increase. The amount of open initiatives on our plates will decline, we will produce smarter results as we think more clearly.

The mantra at work is often that everyone is continuously overwhelmed and must look and be busy. If you are not overwhelmed and frantic then you are probably not a ‘good’ employee. However, “busy” does not necessarily correlate with achieving desired results or successful outcomes. At its worst, actual results may even be compromised. The reality is that constant overwhelm decreases our ability to make good decisions and decreases our overall effectiveness and creativity. In this workshop we’ll take a look at some of the pitfalls that take us off track in our day to day activities. You will learn how to focus on getting the results you need, quickly and effectively. As a result you will have more time, be more relaxed. As you are more relaxed, you will make better decisions, you will find better solutions to the next set of tasks you are working on.

As these principles are learned for the individual, they will naturally be extended to teams and to organizations and lead to impactful, sustainable growth and improvement.
Goals

1 - To teach attendees to create Space and Time by driving initiatives to successful outcomes.
2 - Provide attendees with training on Continuous Improvement to assist in them in rapidly and successfully completing initiatives
3 - Teach attendees how to identify and develop solutions with the highest impact
4 - Equip attendees with new tools to support implementation of solutions
5 - Extend the learning to move from the effective individual to effective teams and effective organizations
6 - Have fun!

Learning Objectives

Attendees will enjoy learning the basic concepts and tools of continuous improvement. In a team environment, they will learn how to support each other to apply these tools and concepts to successfully implement their strategic plans. By the end of the workshop attendees will be confident and mutually supportive of taking the risk to actually use what they learned.

Discuss the organizational need for CI and how this connects to individual and organizational success.

Take a problem from symptom to root cause to implementation.

Learn key Continuous Improvement concepts and tools

Learn how to apply concepts and tools in an organizational setting

Examples of Key Concepts and Tools from the field of Continuous Improvement:

A3 management - a simple, powerful CI process used to gain consensus, focuses groups, capture all information, and drive successful outcomes. It turns a typical unfocused discussion into a focused dialog by capturing relevant information in one simple, structured report. This dramatically reduces the time needed to initiate and complete objectives.

PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Adjust) - learn the benefits of iteration to minimize the time it takes to implement successfully

Visual Management - a simple method to track progress during and after implementation of solutions

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$70

$84

$105

Academic / Non-Profit

$210

$252

$315

Commercial / Industry

$350

$420

$525

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Rainer Vollmerhaus, PhD

Rainer helps organizations to operate at high capability and achieve their goals by facilitating Continuous Improvement, Process Re-Engineering and Team Building. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Calgary. As the founder and principal at Successful Outcomes, he has over 25 years experience in process improvement in corporate, academic and entrepreneurial settings. Rainer has led teams to implement continuous improvement initiatives and address major flaws in business processes. He has facilitated projects ranging from technical manufacturing redesigns, contract and warranty cost reductions and sales growth to logistical and safety improvements. These projects required extensive interactions with project team leaders, often in diverse global locations and with representatives from global teams. Rainer’s key strength is digging deep to uncover the root causes of organizational stagnation, leading to fast organizational change, achieving targets and, ultimately, increased performance.

Lab Medicine 101 :: Basics of Laboratory Medicine

Instructor(s):

Prof. Dr. med. Michael Vogeser

Level:

1 (Beginner)

Location:

Rm 6E (Smoketree E)

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Not in Session

Not in Session

Monday12:30 - 1:30 pm

Monday1:30 - 5:30 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites:

Overview: This 1-day course aims to make scientists familiar with the basic concepts of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine. Typical processes and workflows in the various categories of clinical laboratories are described and discussed. Topics that are addressed include in particular:

Dr. Michael Vogeser, MD, is specialist in Laboratory Medicine and senior physician at the Hospital of the University of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany (Institute of Laboratory Medicine). As an Associate Professor he is teaching Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.The main scope of his scientific work isthe application of mass spectrometric technologies in routine clinical laboratory testing as translational diagnostics. Besides method development in therapeutic drug monitoring and endocrinology a further particular field of his work isquality and risk management in mass spectrometry and in clinical testing in general.Michael has published >150 articles in peer reviewed medical journals and is secretary of the German Association of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (DGKL) (2016 – 2019).

LC-MSMS 101 :: Getting Started with Quantitative LC-MS/MS in the Diagnostic Laboratory

Instructor(s):

Lorin Bachmann, PhD & Grace van der Gugten

Level:

1-2 (Beginner - Intermediate)

Location:

Rm 5 (Sierra)

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Sunday3:00 - 7:00 pm

Monday8:00 am -12:00 pm

Monday12:00 - 1:00 pm

Monday1:00 - 5:00 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites:

Overview: Is your laboratory under pressure to purchase an LC-tandem MS or is the ROI you wrote last year haunting you now? This short course is designed for attendees implementing quantitative LC-tandem MS for patient testing who have laboratory medicine experience but no mass spectrometry training - CLS bench analysts, supervisors, R&D scientists, and laboratory directors. Theoretical concepts necessary for a robust implementation of clinical mass spectrometry will be presented – but the emphasis is on practical recommendations for:

LC-MS/MS system purchasing

site preparation and installation

defining preliminary MSMS and LC parameters for your first method

selecting and optimizing sample preparation for your first method

choosing internal standards, solvents, and water, making reagents and calibrators

establishing data analysis & review criteria and an interface to the LIS

pre-validation stress testing and method validation

preventative maintenance and troubleshooting

maintaining quality in production.

Our goal is to present just enough theory so you can report high quality results, while opening a window to the depth and complexity of clinical mass spectrometry such that your appetite is whetted to learn more.

Previous exposure to the principles of clinical method validation, either didactic or practical, is assumed. A glossary of common LC-MSMS terms/acronyms, and diagrams delineating basic LC and MSMS instrument components and functions will be emailed to attendees a week prior to the beginning of the course. This material will also be addressed at the beginning of the course, but the initial learning curve can be steep and review prior to the course will be beneficial if you have absolutely no previous exposure with LC-MSMS.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$125

$150

$188

Academic / Non-Profit

$375

$450

$563

Commercial / Industry

$625

$750

$938

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Co-Instructor: Lorin Bachmann, PhD, DABCC

Lorin is Associate Professor of Pathology and Co-Director of Chemistry at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Dr. Bachmann’s areas of interest include implementation of LCMS in the clinical laboratory and laboratory test standardization. She routinely contributes to development of laboratory practice guidelines and has provided many lectures on practical implementation of clinical mass spectrometry.

Co-Instructor: Grace Van Der Gugten

Grace is LC-MS/MS Applications Development Specialist at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver BC. She is passionate about developing the most user friendly and streamlined LC-MS/MS assays as possible for routine use in the Special Chemistry Mass Spec Lab. She loves troubleshooting, especially when the cause of problem has been discovered and the issue solved!

LC-MSMS 201 :: Understanding and Optimization of LC-MS/MS to Develop Successful Methods for Identification and Quantitation in Complex Matrices

Instructor(s):

Robert D. Voyksner, PhD

Level:

2 (Intermediate)

Location:

Andreas

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Sunday3:00 - 7:00 pm

Monday9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Monday1:00 - 2:00 pm

Monday2:00 - 6:00 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites: General knowledge of laboratory techniques associated with HPLC and mass spectrometry and some hands-on experience with running an LC/MS system.

Overview: This course is designed for the chromatographer / mass spectrometrist who want to be successful in developing methods, method optimization and solving problems using LC/MS/MS. The course covers the atmospheric pressure ionization (API) techniques of electrospray, pneumatically assisted electrospray and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) and atmospheric pressure photo ionization (APPI) using single quadrupole, triple quadrupole, time-of-flight and ion trap mass analyzers.

Discussions of sample preparation and chromatography will target method development and optimization for the analysis of "real-world" samples by LC/MS/MS.

The course highlights the following topics with respect to optimization a method to achieve the best sensitivity, specificity and sample throughput:

Applications of LC/MS/MS to analyze compounds of clinical interest in biological matrices will be discussed throughout the course to emphasize the topics covered.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$125

$150

$188

Academic / Non-Profit

$375

$450

$563

Commercial / Industry

$625

$750

$938

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Robert D. Voyksner, PhD

Dr. Robert D. Voyksner received his B.S. in Chemistry at Canisius College in 1978 and his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982. He was employed at Research Triangle Institute (RTI) from 1983-2001 as the director of the mass spectrometry facility and has been responsible for developing extraction, separation and mass spectrometric methods for biologically and environmentally significant compounds. His work earned him the Presidents Award, the highest award within RTI. In 2001 he co-founded LCMS Limited in Raleigh, NC and has been the President of the company to date. Under his direction LCMS Limited is working on technological advancements in LC/MS, offering services to pharmaceutical, clinical and agrochemical industry for solving unique problems by LC/MS/MS and offering training in LC/MS/MS and MS/MS interpretation and on LC/MS/MS instrumentation. Dr Voyksner is also an Adjunct professor at the North Carolina a School of Vetinary Medicine and at The University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Voyksner's research in mass spectrometry has resulted in over 230 publications and presentations, primarily in the area of HPLC/MS. He has served on the Board of Directors for The American Society For Mass Spectrometry (ASMS), is on the organization committee for The Montreux LC/MS Symposium and was the organizer for the 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 Montreux LC/MS Symposia. Dr. Voyksner has taught over 100 courses on LC/MS, CE/MS and CID interpretation during the past 10 years for ASMS, pharmaceutical companies; ISSX, PBA, HPCE and HPLC focused meetings.

LC-MSMS 202 :: Practical LC-MS Maintenance and Troubleshooting

Instructor(s):

J. Will Thompson, PhD, Erik J. Soderblom, PhD & Chris Shuford, PhD

Level:

2 (Intermediate)

Location:

Rm 6AB (Smoketree A-B)

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Sunday3:00 - 7:00 pm

Monday9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Monday1:00 - 2:00 pm

Monday2:00 - 6:00 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites: Experience with LC-MS systems.

Overview: The general goal of the course is to enable practitioners of LC-MS/MS in the clinical laboratory to quickly recognize and diagnose specific problems with instrumentation, in order to decrease downtime and cost of repairs. The course includes ‘best practices’ for instrumentation installation, upkeep and maintenance, practical troubleshooting workflows for LC and MS, and will use problem sessions to reinforce skillsets. Although the course uses examples from specific instrumentation for demonstration, the content is geared to be vendor-neutral and applicable to all LC-MS systems. Additionally, we will provide an opportunity to have instrumentation troubleshooting questions from your laboratory addressed by the facilitators.

Brief outline of course content:

General “Best Practices” for Successful LC/MS Operation

Best Practices; Getting Started on the Right Foot

Breaking the System Down

System Suitability! What is it, and how do I properly implement?

Focus on Liquid Chromatography

Diagnostics using the “heartbeat” of your Chromatographic system

Key System components and where things go wrong

LC troubleshooting workflow

Maintenance Intervals; service contract or do-it-yourself?

Problem sets

Focus on Mass Spectrometry

Discussion of Source, Transfer Optics, Vacuum and how each is critical to your system

MS Troubleshooting workflow

Ion optics cleaning and upkeep; what is ‘charging’?

Problem sets

Integrated System

Ionization

System Communications

Multi-vendor configurations

Strategies to simplify

Integrated real-lab problem scenarios and team exercises

While some basics of instrument component operation will be covered, it will be most beneficial to scientists with experience actively using LC-MS/MS as an analysis tool. While an in-depth discussion of how to operate each individual instrument is surely outside the scope of any short course, specific system setups will be used as examples and attendees will be encouraged to ask questions about specific systems in their own laboratories.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$125

$150

$188

Academic / Non-Profit

$375

$450

$563

Commercial / Industry

$625

$750

$938

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Co-Instructor: Will Thompson, PhD

Dr. Thompson received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under Professor James Jorgenson in 2006. Following his Ph.D. he pursued a career in the application of UHPLC with high resolution mass spectrometry in the Disease and Biomarker Proteomics group of Dr. Arthur Moseley at GlaxoSmithKline, leaving GSK in 2008 to join Dr. Moseley in establishing the Duke Proteomics Core Facility. Dr. Thompson is currently the Assistant Director of the Duke Proteomics and Metabolomics Shared Resource, and a Research Assistant Professor in Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology. His research interests involve improving the throughput and sensitivity of unbiased and targeted proteomics and metabolomics approaches, with an eye towards generating assays which are easily translatable to the diagnostic laboratory.

Co-Instructor: Erik J. Soderblom, PhD

Dr. Erik Soderblom currently holds a joint appointment as a Research Scientist at Duke University’s Proteomics and Metabolomics Core Facility and as an Assistant Research Professor in Duke University’s Department of Cell Biology. He received a PhD in Molecular and Structural Biochemistry from North Carolina State University in 2008, prior to joining the Core Facility. His expertise lies in the utilization of various liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) platforms to support a wide variety of research efforts from small scale basic science studies to larger scale clinical proteomics studies. Dr. Soderblom has over 10 years’ experience in differential expression proteomics using single and multi-dimensional nanoscale capillary chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometers, targeted proteomic analysis using triple quadrupole mass spectrometers (MRM) or high-resolution mass spectrometers (PRM), and comprehensive analysis of post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and acetylation. As part of his normal responsibilities, Dr. Soderblom is involved in routine maintenance and troubleshooting of both LC and MS components across various instrument platforms, including design and execution of system suitability analysis to assess platform performance over time.

Co-Instructor: Christopher Shuford, PhD

Chris Shuford, Ph.D., is Technical Director for research and development at LabCorp’s Center for Esoteric Testing in Burlington, North Carolina. Chris received his B.S. in Chemistry & Physics at Longwood University and obtained his Ph.D. in Bioanalytical Chemistry from North Carolina State University under the tutelage of Professor David Muddiman, where his research focused on applications of nano-flow chromatography (<500 nL/min) for multiplexed peptide quantification using protein cleavage coupled with isotope dilution mass spectrometry (PC-IDMS). In 2012, Chris joined LabCorp’s research and development team where his efforts have focused on development of high-flow chromatographic methods (>1 mL/min) for multiplexed and single protein assays for clinical application.

LC-MSMS 301 :: Development and Validation of Quantitative LC-MS/MS Assays for Use in Clinical Diagnostics

Instructor(s):

Russell Grant, PhD & Brian Rappold

Level:

3 (Advanced)

Location:

Rm 4 (Pasadena)

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Sunday3:00 - 7:00 pm

Monday8:00 am -12:00 pm

Monday12:00 - 1:00 pm

Monday1:00 - 5:00 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites: The target audience should have extensive familiarity with LC-MS/MS systems.

Overview: This 2-day course will briefly introduce the key aspects of the LC-MS/MS experimental workflow and then focus on processes and experimental designs for assay development and analytical validation of assays to be employed within clinical diagnostics.

The first day will describe method development in detail, including how-to guides for initial optimization of mass spectrometry systems, chromatographic development and sample preparation schemes. Techniques and technologies for streamlining analytical performance will also be described. Transitional experiments from development to validation will be discussed in detail to stress test methodologies prior to analytical validation.

Day two will cover all details pertinent in validation of LC-MS/MS analytical workflows. Experimental designs for all aspects of validation, putative acceptance criteria and analytical solutions will be shown. Key validation criteria of selectivity, carry-over, matrix effect, accuracy, precision, linearity, stability and inter-assay correlation will be described using multiple case studies.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$125

$150

$188

Academic / Non-Profit

$375

$450

$563

Commercial / Industry

$625

$750

$938

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Co-Instructor: Russell Grant, PhD

Dr. Grant received his PhD in chromatographic and mass spectrometric technologies from Swansea University in 1995. He continued his scientific training in various industrial settings which have included: senior scientist at GSK, principal scientist at Cohesive Technologies, Technical Director at Eli Lilly and Director of Mass Spectrometry at Esoterix Endocrinology.

Dr. Grant has pioneered the use of direct injection technologies, chromatographic systems multiplexing, utility of automation and new analytical platforms for application in bioanalytical applications. His research goals are focused upon improvements in speed, sensitivity and quality of LC-MS/MS analytical systems and assays.

Co-Instructor: Brian Rappold

Brian Rappold is the Scientific Director at Essential Testing in Collinsville, Illinois. He is a renowned expert in the field of method development and validation of mass spectrometry assays for clinical diagnostic use, teaching courses on this subject at numerous scientific conferences. His extensive knowledge and clinical perspective has granted him several opportunities to present his research internationally on the topics of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography for bio-analysis, multiplexed mass spectrometric detection of amino acidopathies and the origins and solutions of ion suppression in electrospray ionization. He currently serves as the chair of Clinical Chemistry for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) and has served on the Metabolomics and Small Molecule Analysis/Toxicology Scientific Committee for The Association for Mass Spectrometry: Applications to the Clinical Laboratory (MSACL). His research interests include the realization of open-access mass spectrometric systems and antibody-capture/mass spectrometry applications to diagnostic medicine.

Prerequisites: Attendees should have a general knowledge of mass spectrometry, but knowledge of imaging and/or MALDI is not required.

Overview: This course will provide an introduction to the basic concepts involved in running a MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry experiment, including key parameters of sample preparation, matrix application, imaging acquisition, instrumental parameters, data analysis, and imaging processing. The course will focus on MALDI mass spectrometry, but other mass spectrometry sources currently used for imaging will be touched on. This course will be presented at the beginner to intermediate level, and will be appropriate for clinicians/pathologists looking to learn more about IMS as well as for mass spectrometrists looking to apply this technology to more clinical samples.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$110

$132

$165

Academic / Non-Profit

$330

$396

$495

Commercial / Industry

$550

$660

$825

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Michelle Reyzer, PhD

Michelle received her BS in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1991, and after that worked at the NIH at the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) in the Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics for 5 years. She then went to the University of Texas at Austin where she received a PhD in Analytical Chemistry in 2000 in the laboratory of Jennifer Brodbelt. The was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt in the laboratory of Richard Caprioli where she was introduced to MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry. She has been focused on the use of MALDI for imaging biological tissues for the past 14 years. Michelle is currently a Research Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and also serves as the Associate Director of the Tissue Imaging Core laboratory, where she routinely develops methods for the analysis of small molecules in tissue sections for investigators within Vanderbilt as well as external collaborators. In addition, Michelle oversees the collaboration and service projects for the National Research Resource for Imaging Mass Spectrometry.

Overview: Metabolomics describes the analysis of the small molecules present in our body and ingested from the surrounding environment (i.e. drugs, pesticides, etc.). The analysis of these metabolites has recently been utilized to discover new markers of disease and perturbed metabolic pathways. Metabolomic analyses can be performed with either targeted or untargeted measurements. In targeted studies, only a small subset of metabolites is analyzed and this prevalent in clinical analyses for measurements such as those for newborn screening. Untargeted measurements, however, study all possible small molecules in a single injection and heavily rely on the use of high resolution mass spectrometry to precisely measure the m/z values across many samples. Untargeted measurements are almost always coupled to either gas or liquid chromatography or ion mobility as the retention time or mobility provides an important secondary distinguishing characteristic of each specific metabolite. It is expected that both targeted and untargeted metabolomic measurements will have an important place in future clinical studies.

Given the growth of metabolomics over the past several years, the use of high resolution mass spectrometry has rapidly progressed. High resolution approaches to measure small molecules offer several advantages for clinical analyses such as confirmation via accurate mass of the precursor and product ions and an evaluation of the isotopic abundance. This short course will cover the application of high resolution mass spectrometry to both quantitative and semi-quantitative analyses with a focus on metabolomics.

Topics in this short course include: mass accuracy for identification, tandem mass spectrometry, quantitative aspects of high resolution mass spectrometry, identifying and measuring the metabolome, statistical analysis, ion mobility spectrometry, and liquid and gas chromatography coupled to high resolution MS.

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$115

$138

$173

Academic / Non-Profit

$345

$414

$518

Commercial / Industry

$575

$690

$863

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Co-Instructor: Timothy Garrett, PhD

TBA

Co-Instructor: Erin Baker, PhD

Dr. Erin Baker is a bioanalytical chemist with more than 16 years' experience utilizing ion mobility spectrometry in conjunction with mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) to study environmental and biological systems. In the last 10 years she has worked primarily on IMS-MS applications in the field of proteomics and more recently she has worked to optimize IMS-MS metabolomic, glycomic and lipidomic separations. Her research involves the development and evaluation of high-throughput IMS-MS, SPE-IMS-MS and LC-IMS-MS analyses to quickly study numerous samples in a short time period without losing valuable biological information, as well as assessing the number and quality of features detected with IMS-MS for comparison with existing MS platforms. Dr. Baker is also presently working with the PNNL Informatics team to design and implement software tools that automatically analyze the complex multidimensional SPE-IMS-MS and LC-IMS-MS data.

Proteomics 101 :: Introduction to Quantitative Proteomics

Instructor(s):

Mike MacCoss, PhD, Michael Bereman, PhD & Jarrett Egertson, PhD

Level:

1-2 (Beginner - Intermediate)

Location:

Chino

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Sunday3:00 - 7:00 pm

Monday8:30 am - 12:30 pm

LunchMonday12:30 - 1:30 pm

Not in Session

Not in Session

Prerequisites: Basic mass spectrometry knowledge

Overview: This course will introduce the researchers to the basics of performing quantitative peptide measurements by mass spectrometry. We will cover the basics of discovery and targeted methods, sample preparation, quality control, sample preparation, and software for method building and data analysis. To prepare participants for performing quantitative proteomics experiments in their own labs we will focus on the following topics:

Use of Skyline for targeted proteomics method building and data analysis.

Data Independent Acquisition

Case studies

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$100

$120

$150

Academic / Non-Profit

$300

$360

$450

Commercial / Industry

$500

$600

$750

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Instructor: Mike MacCoss, PhD

The focus of the MacCoss laboratory is in the development and application of cutting edge mass spectrometry based technologies for the analysis of complex protein mixtures. They have developed a number of tools and methods to expedite the development of quantitative protein measurements by mass spectrometry. Dr. MacCoss' primary area of expertise is in protein biochemistry, nanoflow liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry instrumentation, and computational analysis of mass spectrometry data. The MacCoss laboratory has been actively applying these tools to important areas of biology including the basic biology of aging, protein-protein interactions, insulin signaling, measurement of protein half-life, transcriptional regulation, characterization of post-translational modifications, proteogenomics, and clinical diagnostics.

Instructor: Michael Bereman, PhD

Michael Bereman is an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of the Center for Human Health and the Environment (CHHE) at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. The central focus of his research is to develop innovative, quantitative methodologies to investigate the interplay between environment and genetic factors with respect to human health and disease. The assessment of a vast number of environmental exposures on disease risk remains a critical – yet unfulfilled challenge. His efforts focus on the continued improvements in technology with applications in two key areas: 1) Development of assays to quantify the degree of overall exposure in biological fluids using existing and novel protein modifications; and 2) The elucidation of the impact of various environmental exposures on the etiology of diseases using both human specimens and animal models. Prior to joining NCSU, he held a post-doctoral position in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington where he focused on instrumentation development, targeted assays for determining protein metabolism, and quality control in proteomics.

Instructor: Jarrett Egertson, PhD

Jarrett Egertson is a staff scientist at the Michael MacCoss lab at the University of Washington. He has 10 years of experience in the field of mass spectrometry-based proteomics with specific expertise on the design of data independent acquisition (DIA) based LC-MS/MS assays. His thesis work focused on the development of MSX -- a highly selective, multiplexed DIA approach implemented on quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometers. He currently heads the services division of the MacCoss lab which offers services covering targeted assay design, evaluation, and execution to clients in industry and academia.

Proteomics 201 :: Clinical Proteomics

Instructor(s):

Andy Hoofnagle, MD, PhD, Cory Bystrom, PhD & Chris Shuford, PhD

Level:

2-3 (Intermediate - Advanced)

Location:

Rm 3 (Madera)

Course Contact Hours

Sunday PM

Monday AM

Lunch

Monday PM

Tuesday AM

Sunday3:00 - 7:00 pm

Monday8:30 am - 12:30 pm

Monday12:30 - 1:30 pm

Monday1:30 - 5:30 pm

Tuesday8:00am - 12:00pm

Prerequisites: Practical knowledge of quantitative mass spectrometry.

Overview: This course will explore the background of clinical proteomics and approaches to method development and validation. We will provide the motivation for using mass spectrometry to quantify proteins in clinical research and in clinical care. The promise of mass spectrometry to improve the accuracy and precision of results is only realized with robust methods. In order to prepare participants to begin to develop their own robust methods for quantification we will focus on the following topics:

Why mass spec for peptides and proteins

Optimization of digestion and other aspects of the method

Internal standards

Calibration

Immunoaffinity enrichment

Validation

Quality control

Case studies

EarlyBirdDeadlineDec 7, 2016

RegularDeadlineDec 20, 2016

AfterDec 20, 2016

Student / Post-Doc (Trainee)

$125

$150

$188

Academic / Non-Profit

$375

$450

$563

Commercial / Industry

$625

$750

$938

*Short Course Registration is separate from Conference Registration.

Co-Instructor: Andy Hoofnagle, MD, PhD

Dr. Hoofnagle's laboratory focuses on the precise quantification of recognized protein biomarkers in human plasma using LC-MRM/MS. In addition, they have worked to develop novel assays for the quantification of small molecules in clinical and research settings. His laboratory also studies the role that the systemic inflammation plays in the pathophysiology of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Co-Instructor: Cory Bystrom, PhD

Dr. Cory Bystrom serves as Director of Research and Development at Cleveland HeartLab where he is responsible for novel biomarker identification, validation and commercialization with an emphasis on quantitative biological mass spectrometry. Dr. Bystrom has over a decade of experience as a laboratory leader and chemist. Prior to joining CHL, he was at Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute as associate director of research and development with responsibilities for development of tests and identification of analytical strategies for commercialization of new biomarkers. He also has held research and development roles at Oregon Health Science University, Fonterra, and Pharmacia and Upjohn.

Co-Instructor: Christopher Shuford, PhD

Chris Shuford, Ph.D., is Technical Director for research and development at LabCorp’s Center for Esoteric Testing in Burlington, North Carolina. Chris received his B.S. in Chemistry & Physics at Longwood University and obtained his Ph.D. in Bioanalytical Chemistry from North Carolina State University under the tutelage of Professor David Muddiman, where his research focused on applications of nano-flow chromatography (<500 nL/min) for multiplexed peptide quantification using protein cleavage coupled with isotope dilution mass spectrometry (PC-IDMS). In 2012, Chris joined LabCorp’s research and development team where his efforts have focused on development of high-flow chromatographic methods (>1 mL/min) for multiplexed and single protein assays for clinical application.

Overview: This course will encompass various sample preparation approaches used for LC-MS assays. The course will highlight not only the importance of sample processing in the clinical laboratory environment, but also illustrate the “fit for purpose” application of processing techniques in clinical mass spectrometry. This course will also discuss the theory behind different specimen preparation methods, strengths and weaknesses of each approach, as well as opportunities for automation. The first 8 hours will serve as a primer of the role of upfront sample management, utilizing examples in blood and urine specimen sources. There will also be an introduction to the application of LC-MS approaches in alternative matrices. The second 8 hours will elaborate on the foundations established in the first half, and expand into newer technologies and automated alternatives for sample processing.

Specific topics to be covered include:

Pain points in clinical LC-MS

Overview of specimen processing in laboratory medicine

Off-line sample processing

On-line sample processing

Analysis of blood and urine

LC-MS of tissue specimens

Alternate body fluid specimens (e.g. CSF, breast milk, etc.)

Intracellular and metabolite analysis

Dried specimens as matrices

Automation of sample processing

Topics will be covered through lecture, Q&A, Case Studies, and small group exercises.